I care more for her than for her American friend?"
said the Tutor.

"Why, have n't I met you walking with her, and did n't you both seem
greatly interested in the subject you were discussing? I thought, of
course, it was something more or less sentimental that you were talking
about."

"I was explaining that 'enclitic de' in Browning's Grammarian's Funeral.
I don't think there was anything very sentimental about that. She is an
inquisitive creature, that English girl. She is very fond of asking me
questions,--in fact, both of them are. There is one curious difference
between them: the English girl settles down into her answers and is
quiet; the American girl is never satisfied with yesterday's conclusions;
she is always reopening old questions in the light of some new fact or
some novel idea. I suppose that people bred from childhood to lean their
backs against the wall of the Creed and the church catechism find it hard
to sit up straight on the republican stool, which obliges them to stiffen
their own backs. Which of these two girls would be the safest choice for
a young man? I should really like to hear what answer you would make if I
consulted you seriously, with a view to my own choice,--on the
supposition that there was a fair chance that either of them might be
won."

"The one you are in love with," answered Number Five.

"But what if it were a case of 'How happy could I be with either'? Which
offers the best chance of happiness,--a marriage between two persons of
the same country, or a marriage where one of the parties is of foreign
birth? Everything else being equal, which is best for an American to
marry, an American or an English girl? We need not confine the question
to those two young persons, but put it more generally."

"There are reasons on both sides," answered Number Five. "I have often
talked this matter over with The Dictator. This is the way he speaks
about it. English blood is apt to tell well on the stock upon which it
is engrafted. Over and over again he has noticed finely grown specimens
of human beings, and on inquiry has found that one or both of the parents
or grandparents were of British origin. The chances are that the
descendants of the imported stock will be of a richer organization, more
florid, more muscular, with mellower voices, than the native whose blood
has been unmingled with that of new emigrants since the earlier colonial
times.--So talks The Dictator.--I myself think the A